There may be times when it is desired that a tray surface be available at the seats so as to enable storing of devices, cups, or other items, for example. For this purpose, at least the padded surface of the arm rest is highly unsuitable. From the state of the art, however, different designs are known for solving this problem.
In a first embodiment, a removable lid is used in an arm rest. First of all, said lid comprises a padded surface on the side facing the passenger cabin for the use as an arm support. One aspect is that the lid cannot only be adjusted, but also be removed completely. By turning the lid over and by reinserting it into the arm rest, a largely plane surface for placing various items is created.
On the one hand, it is disadvantageous that the lid has to be completely removed from the arm rest and then be placed on it again in a turned position. The nature as a loose part of the arm rest, however, is particularly disadvantageous. There may be the risk that, for whatever reason, the lid is removed completely without being immediately reinserted and that it might not be available again at a later time.
For realizing storage options in back seats, it is further known to integrate a tray table in the back rest of a front seat, which tray table can be swung up appropriately from the back rest and can be retained in that position.
In another alternative, a folding table is arranged beneath a center part of the seat surface of the back seat bench, which center part is positioned in front of the center arm rest. By swinging up the center seat surface, the table surface is provided. This embodiment, however, is conditioned on sufficient space in the vehicle for the seat surface to be swiveled forward in order to be able to make the corresponding table surface accessible, which is not possible in many vehicles.
Also, embodiments are known in which a lid of a center console of the front seats is used in a position swiveled backwards by 180° so as to form a table for the back seat bench. This, however, causes the problem that passengers sitting in the front are deprived of the center console as an arm support.